Summer's Journey

And so... our teletherapy sessions will live on! For another four more weeks... till 1 June... together with the extension of our Circuit Breaker. Since we suspended all face-to-face sessions on 8 April, we have been providing teletherapy*. Despite this being a fairly new area for us, it was not difficult to pick up; there are plenty of resources online such as suggested teletherapy platforms and therapy resources. However, I wish someone has given me the following five tips! # Tip 1: Do NOT leave food cooking in your rice cooker just before lunch break! If your teletherapy session is at 11 am, just before lunch, do NOT put anything to cook in the rice cooker, thinking that the food will be ready right when your session is over. The aroma of the food can be a huge distraction!  All-in-a-pot mushroom chicken rice! Smells sooooo good! (Yes, surprise! HT can cook... a little.) # Tip 2: Do NOT leave your clothes out to dry during your session! After doing your...

As at 8 April 2020, Summer's has stopped all home-based sessions, and we will resume from 5 May. This is in line with schools' home-based learning (HBL) period. This decision was a tough but also an easy one (regardless of the COVID-19 bill). We are a small enterprise; for every session we cancel, our revenue suffers. Our services come under 'healthcare' and we are not centre-based. We could have argued to be 'essential' services and we do not have a physical centre to 'close shop'. We also know of therapy companies who are still operating, by shifting all sessions to home-based; nobody will know because they are just going into the homes. However, why did Summer's make the decision to stop all sessions? What were our considerations? The Spirit of Social Distancing The COVID-19 situation started escalating towards the end of March; there were more local clusters. I worry for my staff members. I put in several extra precautionary measures, incl...

Yeah! Another year of Summer's has flew passed... I am proud and thankful of Journey 2019. Our team has grown! We have onboard our IT Engineer, Hon Tjuin, in March and another Speech Therapist, Jayne in June. I am especially thankful that these two new colleagues share similar values and passion. This is priceless. In November, we visited Hon Tjuin, who is working remotely in Sitiawan, Malaysia. We had such a great time connecting with one another and even had our early annual DnD. Hon Tjuin also updated the team on his latest work projects. It was great to see his work station too; now we can visualise where he is when we do our Skype calls. We also met his Aunt, Grandmother and Grandfather. Oh! And his two dogs. This year, we also see a new collaborative relationship with Inner Circle, in Dhaka, Bangladesh. I have been consultating for Inner Circle's Speech Therapy services since April. I see the Speech Therapy team group grow from one therapist to three, and th...

Whenever friends ask me, "So how many staff members do you have?" My reply of "I have three therapists and an IT Engineer." never fails to draw a surprise "WHY do you need an IT Engineer?" Here's why...  Interview with Hon Tjuin, our Trusty IT Engineer Me:  Hi Hon Tjuin, great to finally have this interview with you. You have been with us for more than six months and everyone has been asking why Summer's needs an IT Engineer! Please help me clear the air.  Hon Tjuin:  Hahaha! Great question! My main role is to oversee the IT needs of the company, such as maintaining the company’s website and choosing IT software and services, with the aim of improving productivity. In addition to that, I also revamp existing apps, while developing new ones. Me: Thank you for clearing the air. That is for sure a lot of work and that is why Summer's need an IT Engineer. I hope everyone's happy with hearing it from the horse's mouth. ...

The first quarter of the year flew passed just like that. It has been an exciting start at Summer's.  On 1 March, we welcomed Hon Tjuin, our IT Engineer. Not only will he be supporting Summer's IT needs, he will be continually revamping and developing our Sing-To-Talk app series. Sing-To-Talk Sing-To-Talk is something which I hold very dear to my heart. The series of materials was created by myself and my Music Therapist friend, Jenny Lee from New Zealand. http://summerstherapyservices.com/#sing-to-talk The Little Monkey and Ice Cream Man are ready for download. They focus on basic vowel sounds and consonant-vowel (b/p/m) combinations. Research shows that music supports the development of speech and language. I have also witness its wonderous effects in the children I work with. The children love the catchy tunes and it helps them produce the sounds and remember the long sentences. Sing-To-Talk is still very much a work-in-progress. We hope to beef ...

2015, 2016, 2017 and 2018... Fourth Thanksgiving post! I am thankful just for that alone. Reflecting this year, Summer's has experienced much and so have I...  On the Personal Front 2018 is another year of plenty of overseas travels, but the trips are personal trips, not just work trips. I have made eight personal trips and connected and reconnected with people whom I hold dearly in my heart. In February, I was in Yangon for a day to attend the wedding of one of the teachers at New World Therapuetic Center for Special Needs Children. It was my honour to be invited to share the joy. These teachers are more than 'only people whom I work with'. In March, Mag invited me to join her life group to visit Israel. Her life group makes up of people closest to her, who have walked through life with her for nearly twenty years. This Israel trip did not only bring the Bible to life, it also brought Mag and I closer. Bible sharing at the Sea of Galilee \ Mag a...

Finally back in Singapore after nearly three weeks in Myanmar! The word that came to mind when looking back at the last three weeks is 'connecting'. The first leg had me spending time with Danielle Ryan, the Angmo (Caucasian) version of me. We had met in 2012 when we were working in SPD. Since her return to Ireland in 2013, we kept in touch through infrequent text messages. However we made a point to visit each other every two years. This year, she came to Singapore where we retraced our favourite places and did our favourite activities, i.e. supervision over kaya toast and hanging out on The Bridge. Later we went on to Myanmar (Yangon and Taunggyi). It was awesome to show her Myanmar, a place I love.   Danielle and I having lunch at Inle Heirtage Centre! We had a great time looking at Burmese cats, not! Oh well, at least Danielle did! It was also in Taunggyi that I connected with Thiri Nwe, a Facebook friend. She is the founder of a therapuetic center in Taunggyi. It ...